


The Reality is Less Sweet

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sex, Trans Male Character, post season two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25509829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: A lot has changed since the night at the theatre, they have changed greatly, but some changes aren't as terrible as others.
Relationships: Guillermo de la Cruz/Nandor the Relentless
Comments: 30
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

The reality of vampirism was a far cry from the works of fiction created by the pens and typewriters of humans. There of course were shared lore and even a similar aesthetic that could not be ignored, but the stories of Dracula and of Lestat were nothing more than just that, stories. A romanticism of something truly horrific, the idea of a gorgeous creature lurking in the dark, fangs sensuously piercing into paper thin flesh while a victim writhed and moaned, head lolling and hips rolling as if the act were purely sexual and not an act of being drained of your very existence. Twilight for all it got wrong resonated for Nandor, he loved the books and the films dearly despite the fact his housemates loathed them and him for his fixated obsession with the story, they didn’t understand it came from his own sort of relating melancholy. Still it was fiction. 

These were the things he first thought of that night when he’d first met Guillermo; the then teenager when he’d realized that he’d come across a genuine vampire had gazed up at him with glittering brown eyes hidden behind round shining glass frames, an excited smile tugged at his full lips, his cheeks full and flushed. He’d looked upon Nandor as if he’d just struck gold or met his lifetime idol and in a sense he had. He’d spent much of his still fresh human life idolizing vampires, re-watching Interview with the Vampire on tape until the tape eventually wore and his mother had to buy him a second copy and then eventually a third. Nandor knew this, because Guillermo had told him so on that first night whilst prattling on about his love of vampires, telling him it had always been his dream to meet one in person. Nandor had stared down at him with impassive dark eyes, a snarl eventually forming, fangs exposed, and he’d been fighting the urge to either run or just snap the neck of this young ridiculous mortal. He’d fled of course, only to days later run into the same boy, it became a sort of an obsession for Guillermo until finally Nandor caved, told him he would take him on as a familiar despite his young age, offered him a room in their house, and the false promise of turning him into a vampire within a year or so. 

Eleven years since that day had come and gone. Much had changed and he wished that he could find a way to go back to that day eleven years ago and change something, change what? He wasn’t sure.

Now he stood in the hall of an apartment building, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he felt awkward and out of place, a sensation he’d felt a lot lately, and he despised it greatly. He knocked on the sickly green painted door once more, the sound echoing through the hall; he could hear television sets playing in other apartments, could hear a couple screaming at each other from the floor above him, and somewhere he caught the stench of death and rot, his mind fixed on the scent for a moment. He was startled when the door before him slowly opened, Guillermo standing on the other side, a small tired smile on his face as he stared up at the vampire. He wasn’t the same boy he’d been then, in a way he still was technically he was the same human, time gripped him with its unyielding claws, and sometimes he looked older, exhausted, worn down. Tonight, he looked tired, but happy. His eyes lighting up when he saw the vampire, his smile felt genuine as he stepped aside gesturing for him to enter his apartment. 

Nandor entered wordlessly, he’d visited this place off and on for the past three months, still he felt out of place here. The living space was small, a beige couch sat against the wall nearest the door, in front of it was a glass coffee table littered with old tomes, a small bible, and a wooden stake laid upon its surface, and across from that sat a cheap looking television set that rested upon a wooden entertainment stand. The apartment was sparsely decorated, its walls eggshell white, its small kitchenette scarcely used by the human, and the bedroom at least the last time he’d seen it was cluttered with weapons and dirty clothes. 

“I need to make you a key, so you don’t have to stand there waiting for me all the time.” Guillermo commented, a nervous laugh escaping him as he closed and locked the door.

He stopped himself before he could ask if that meant he really was going to live here forever, if this was the way things would be now. They hadn’t had that talk yet, neither of them brave enough to broach the subject or the ensuing fight that would surely result from it. Nandor knew himself too well to say there would be no fight.

He watched as his human hurried over to the coffee table muttering apologetically as he gathered up the stake and the bible taking them over to a small table, he opened the top drawer dropping the items inside then shutting it. Nandor seated himself on the couch and watched him, he missed when Guillermo was in their home, where he’d been for just a little over eleven years, where he belonged. Guillermo turned back to him smiling awkwardly, it was then in the pale light of the apartment that he noticed the long cut that ran across his right cheek, the vampire’s brow furrowed, he frowned as he noticed the mark and began to inquire about it. Guillermo paled, he touched against the mark and glanced away no longer able to meet his eyes, he grabbed a chair from the small dining table and seated it across from the couch, the distance stung a bit. It felt like each time he visited it was like this, awkward as if they were strangers, or on a terrible first date.

“Have you had any trouble with the Council?” Nandor asked.

Guillermo shook his head, curls of black hair falling over his forehead, he fidgeted nervously with his fingers. “No, it’s been uh really quiet actually.” He lied.

Nandor once used to believe anything and everything that Guillermo told him, if Guillermo told him that the moon was actually pink then he would have believed him. Yet after that night in the theatre he’d stopped doing such a naïve thing, it hurt of course to not believe the first person he’d loved since his death, but how could he? He even now pictured him that night, soaked with the blood of vampires, his voice rough and rasping, eyes dark, and sickly enough he’d never loved him more.

“Good, how are er things, with your….VanHelsing research?” He hesitated to ask.

He found that if they didn’t indulge in pleasantries and awkward small talk then this silence would draw out painfully, he hated the silence. There had been a balance to things when they had been master and familiar, when Guillermo had looked at him with such naïve love, but he supposed he’d ruined that.

He looked up at the question, smiling slightly as if it pleased him to know that he wanted to know. He didn’t want to, not really.

“Well I did find out that I’m not the only one in my family to um….y’know, but it looks like it skips a generation, my dad wasn’t, but apparently grandpa was. I tried to ask my mom about grandpa, not the whole slayer thing obviously, but what he did, what he was like. She didn’t exactly have much to say about him, she said that dad fell out of contact with him shortly after graduating.” He paused for a moment staring down at his still fidgeting hands, brow furrowing, he worried his bottom lip between his teeth as if considering what to say next. “I found out that there was a woman in my family who was an alleged slayer, she would um….She extracted the fangs of vampires that she hunted, fashioned them into a necklace.” He spoke quietly, never once brave enough to meet Nandor’s gaze.

The vampire felt an odd chill run through him at that news, he ran his tongue across his own fangs and could only imagine somebody doing such a thing. It was more difficult to believe that Guillermo came from a line of such people; he’d heard tales of VanHelsing when he’d been a younger vampire, he recalled whispers of such a man wielding wooden stakes and vials of holy water, but he’d never come across him or any of his kin. Not until recently apparently, it should scare him, and it did. Guillermo had told him he had to move out and get a place of his own because he didn’t trust himself around them any longer, he’d found himself on one too many occasions very nearly killing them, well more specifically Laszlo, but still. Of course, it was terrifying and unsettling and even heart breaking to find out Guillermo could do such a thing, to witness him not just kill Carol, but all those other vampires right before his eyes. The ease of it, but still he’d been utterly terrified at the thought of those vampires overpowering Guillermo and killing him while all he could do was sit and watch. 

He thought for a moment he might re-read New Moon when he returned home.

“So, what happened to her?”

Guillermo met his gaze, uncertainty in his eyes. “Well according to forums she was killed by a vampire, according to police reports she was found with a sizable chunk of her throat bitten out, they chalked it up to an animal attack despite no wolves or coyotes being known to inhabit the town she lived in.” He shrugged, looked away again.

It was a sort of blessing for vampires that the majority of humans lived in denial; it was a funny thing really. When Nandor had been a boy there had been many superstitions and beliefs, there hadn’t been the word vampire quite yet, but there were tales of monsters and demons that came rather close to the description. Vampires back when he’d been alive had been much different than they are now, The Baron was one of the few who had reminded him of the vampires of his time, those hideous monstrous creatures that lurked in the night stealing away children and infants for their food, attacking young men and women when they were at their weakest and most vulnerable.

“Nandor?”

He shook the thoughts from his head as he realized Guillermo had been talking and he’d apparently not been listening. “Yes?”

“Have you….Have you hunted yet tonight?”

“No, I just came straight here.” 

“Do the others know that you’re here?”

Nandor stared down at the floor, the carpet coarse and a sort of faint brown, more the idea of brown than the actual color. He hated it. 

“No, they think that I am hunting.”

A sort of awkward tension filled the room or perhaps it had always been there, but now felt more prominent. The others, more specifically Nadja and Laszlo had been less than pleased to find out about Guillermo. He knew his housemates had always had complicated feelings about his young familiar, they had spent centuries chastising him for his habit of becoming friends with those in his employ, but he couldn’t help himself. Eternity was lonely even when surrounded by others like yourself. He knew that his friends didn’t hate Guillermo, but at the end of the day they had only seen him as a familiar. So it wasn’t too difficult for them to come to the conclusion that he was a danger to them, that they didn’t want to share a home with a Helsing who would now be hunted by the Council, and Nandor understood their point. The part of him that had been a warrior understood and agreed, but something else in him couldn’t commit to the idea of never seeing Guillermo again.

“They’re going to be mad if they find out that you were here.” 

Nandor shrugged, “I don’t care.” He met his eyes again, sometimes he could see this doubt in Guillermo’s eyes. There was a struggle there, he waited for the day to come when he would tell him to leave and never come back, that he was going to follow family tradition and dedicate his human existence to exterminating vampires from the Earth. He waited to be told this couldn’t work, that there were too many differences between them, hard to ignore differences, he waited for Guillermo to outgrow him, and this. For him to find somebody who could give him an actual life, marriage, kids if he were looking to start a family of his own perhaps. 

Guillermo got up from his seat and walked around the coffee table to stand before him, he settled himself on his lap, hands against his shoulders, and before Nandor could say anything Guillermo was kissing him. It wasn’t gentle or hesitant, they were far past that stage of things. No this was passionate, this was the type of kiss shared between lovers who had been apart for months or even years, it had only been a few weeks, but it felt like years for Nandor. Perhaps it felt like that for Guillermo as well. He tangled his fingers in curls of short black hair, his other hand resting against the small of his back pulling him flush against him, he could feel his heart racing, feel his pulse thrumming, and he ached to taste his blood. Nandor moaned when Guillermo bit and sucked against his bottom lip, his partner’s hands running down his chest towards his stomach, he ground against him and Nandor moaned in response, his cock already hardening. His fingers stroked against the side of his neck feeling the vibration of his pulse, the movement of his throat with each breath and moan. Guillermo broke from the kiss panting, he rested his forehead against his, he traced the pad of his thumb along Nandor’s bottom lip, eyes fixed on long sharp fangs.

Perhaps some things hadn’t changed, it saddened him as much as it gave him hope to know that Guillermo still wanted to be bitten by him, to become a vampire. He’d assumed that after he quit being his familiar, moved out, and began researching his heritage that this dream of becoming something more had faded like many other things. He gently grasped Guillermo’s wrist, he pressed a kiss against the palm of his hand before moving it away from his mouth, he kissed him again before anything could be said. He hadn’t seen him in weeks, it had been weeks since he’d felt the comforting weight and warmth of his body atop him, eager hands pulling at his clothes to feel his much cooler flesh, he didn’t wish to ruin it with a fight. Nandor tugged and pulled at his sweater, the white dress shirt underneath, he slid his hands up under his top to touch along warm soft flesh, he pressed his tongue into his mouth wanting to bury himself in his warmth, all of it, all of him. His hands slid down to his ass fingers pressing and digging pulling him closer as he ground up against him, Guillermo moaned feeling his hard cock brush against him, he rolled his hips pressing against him. Nandor kissed down the front of his throat, tongue tracing down along warm vibrating flesh and deep down he did ache to pierce his fangs into him, to taste him. He imagined beneath the death scent and taste of a slayer there was something bitter and sweet, something so purely filled with life that he could drown in it, his fangs grazed against his skin nearly piercing, only stopping when Guillermo suddenly pulled back away from him getting up from his lap. Nandor blinked up at him as the thoughts of biting him drifted from his mind and he was left once more just focused on him as a whole, as a person, a person he loved. Guillermo’s cheeks were flushed and his eyes were dark with lust, Nandor watched as he unfastened his pants pushing them and his boxer briefs down around his ankles, awkwardly stepping out of them before climbing back onto the vampire’s lap straddling him one more, he reached down palming against the bulge of Nandor’s cock through his trousers drawing a moan from him, he rocked up against his hand desperate for more, desperate to feel his wet heat wrapped around his aching cock, to draw loud desperate moans from his partner. He tangled his fingers in Guillermo’s hair jerking his head back, a hissing moan escaping his lips, eyes slipping closed, and Nandor latched onto his throat, kissing, sucking against soft skin, fangs teasing but never ripping, because he feared once he did that he wouldn’t be able to stop. His own moans and growls of pleasure were muffled against his neck as he felt Guillermo unlace his pants, hand slipping down and fingers wrapping around his cock pulling him free, stroking slowly, the pad of his thumb teasing his tip smearing pre-cum over the heated flesh.

“Need you,” he whispered, his voice rough and heavy with lust.

Nandor released his grip on his hair, his hands moving to his thick plush thighs, blunt nails scratching as he guided him up. He couldn’t take his dark eyes off him, fascinated by him, wishing there were less clothes between them, but he’d settle for this. He’d take anything that Guillermo was willing to give to him, he couldn’t remember when it became this way. 

“Fuck,” he hissed out when Guillermo lowered himself onto his cock, taking each thick inch of his erection into the wet tight heat of his pussy.

He gripped his hips firmly, but not too firmly. He bucked up into him driving himself deeper inside him, Guillermo’s hands rested on his shoulders steadying himself as he rocked against him, lifting himself up and dropping back down keeping his cock pressed deep inside him. Guillermo kissed along his jaw, nipped down his throat and his hands roamed over his still clothed chest, Nandor groaned in frustration not being able to feel his warm hands on his cool flesh, but still he was inside him. He could feel his heat, feel the tightening of his vaginal walls around his cock and he thrust up into him hard drawing a beautiful cry of pleasure from the younger man. Guillermo bit and sucked against his neck, moans and shouts muffled, Nandor pet his fingers through his hair as he thrust into him, his thrusts nearly as desperate and chasing as Guillermo’s were. 

Guillermo kissed him then, tongue pressing into his mouth, there was always something about him that was sweet. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was uniquely him or perhaps he only felt that way because he loved him. People always seemed unique, different from all the other humans walking the Earth when you were in love, and perhaps to another person, another vampire even Guillermo would just be, yet another face lost in the crowd. Years ago, it had seemed that way, but then it changed, started as hunger which gave way to lust and affection, somehow love had hit him over the head like a brick. He knew Guillermo had loved him for years, too many really, he’d said so. Said he’d loved him for so long that he couldn’t quite remember the first time it struck him; it was a tragic thing really when he allowed himself to think about it.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a particularly hard bite to the side of his neck nearly breaking the skin, he growled in response to the sudden oddly pleasurable pain, Guillermo licked against the temporary mark, and he could feel him smirking against his ashen skin as he continued thrusting back against him. Nandor pulled his hair again, hard enough to pull his head back so he could meet his eyes, there was such lust and love and somewhat of a challenge in his eyes. He wondered what Guillermo saw when he looked at him, if he saw the face of an impassive creature too old to properly feel, to understand feelings the way he had nearly a thousand years ago. When he kissed him slow and sweet, held Guillermo’s body flush against his own as he slowed his own thrusting, still buried deep inside him, slowing their pace to something sweeter, drawn out just for a moment he hoped that he understood. He hoped that he could feel it in the way he stroked his fingers against his jaw, lightly brushed his thumb across the long cut on his cheek. There was an unspoken apology in the kiss, years of ache and hurt, but it would never truly make up for any of the pain he’d caused him. 

“Love you,” Guillermo whispered against his lips.

He kissed him again preventing him from responding, not that he necessarily needed to, they both knew. He hoped he knew, hoped that he believed him after everything. Nandor’s fingers dug into his thighs as he kept his partner pressed close against him, one hand slid between his legs, nails scratching up his thigh, he teased his thumb against the tip of his clit making him moan. Teasingly he stroked and touched, teased the pad of his finger against his tip, Guillermo’s thrusting becoming more frantic, moans louder, echoing off the blank walls of the living room. He hid his face against the side of his neck, Nandor could feel his hot breath against his skin, his whimpering moans, he stroked him, drew him closer until he was clenching around his cock, nails digging into the fabric of his cape as he came hard around him calling out his name. It was the most beautiful thing, enough to push him into his own release cumming inside him, filling him with his release. Guillermo’s breathing slowed, his heart beating a steady rhythm once more after a minute passed, his grip loosened and he nuzzled against his neck, light lazy kisses against his skin before he pulled back to properly look at him, a small shy smile on his face as he looked at him. Nandor rested a hand against his cheek, he kissed him gently, content to live in this moment.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably going to be three chapters now, sorry that this one is so short.

Hunting for prey was a complicated thing. Every vampire approached it differently; of course, in films and TV they often took the approach of seduction, Nandor had on occasion tried it that way, but often found that made it more difficult to kill a person. He wasn’t thrilled at the idea of tearing his fangs into the throat of a person he was in the middle of having intercourse with, the idea of killing somebody post orgasm seemed just as awkward and messy, wrong in some way. Colin had attempted to joke once that it was like a person having sex with a hamburger, a joke that had been completely lost on the vampire, but it had made him feel ill and annoyed. No, he typically chose to hunt like an animal might; he thought of himself as an animal, he was, wasn’t he?

Humans were advanced animals, instead of tooth and claw they killed with guns and knives. He’d once done that; he’d killed many a man and animal with swords and knives. In the thirty odd years he had managed to live he had never imagined himself low on the food chain, as far as he or anybody else saw it, humans were at the top of the food chain, how could you not be? He knew differently now.

In the darkness of a parking lot he lurked, waited and watched; there were few cars parked here, he figured anybody left were either those working late shifts or addicts getting high before returning to their homes. He wasn’t fond of the waiting part of the hunt, hiding behind lamp posts and the sides of closed shops, watching, listening intently to his surroundings waiting to hear the beating of a heart or the scrape of shoes against pavement, sometimes it took hours. He wasn’t exactly a patient man, if he didn’t find anybody to eat within the hour he would fly off towards the park where he often lucked into couples having sex or a late-night jogger. He sighed as he leaned back against a post, he found it had been easier when Guillermo had been his familiar and had supplied his meals for him. Unfortunately, though it had made him rather lazy like a house cat who no longer saw the purpose or thrill in hunting and killing its own food, why bother when he had somebody bringing him meals? 

He knew that if he hired on a new familiar then he wouldn’t have to wait around in cold parking lots or stalk people through the local parks, he would have some poor bastard just bring him people to feed on. Yet when he thought about hiring somebody new, a replacement, it made his stomach turn. It felt wrong replacing Guillermo, deep down he did know and understand that he would never come back to work for him, but he supposed some naïve part of himself liked to believe that he would. Was that what he wanted? He wasn’t sure anymore. All of the changes occurring lately made his head ache, it made him frustrated and angry. He supposed that frustrated anger was what drove him to come out to this lot, to wait in the darkness for somebody to rip his fangs into. He needed to take out his frustrations and this felt like the only reasonable way to do so; he’d already gotten into several unnecessary fights with Laszlo, one of which had to be broken up by Nadja, and he didn’t want to take out his frustrations on Guillermo, he couldn’t deal with himself if he hurt him or scared him, the very thought of such a thing saddened him. No, scaring him was a great fear of his. Funny really, eleven years ago he’d wanted to scare him off, wanted to rid him of that goofy smile and those stupid puppy dog eyes that looked at him as if he were something worth admiring.

The soles of shoes scraping against the pavement caught his attention, he scanned the area eventually noticing a man coming out of one of the shops. He watched as the figure locked the door then walked a few feet before stopping. Nandor slowly moved from the post and lurked through the cover of darkness growing closer to the man, watched as he pulled a packet of cigarettes and a cheap lighter from the pocket of his black slacks. The man seemed lost in his own world, unaware of the monster in the darkness watching him intently, waiting. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was waiting for; he watched as the man placed the cigarette between his thin chapped lips and lit the tip of it, the orange glow of the cigarette as the man drew in a deep breath taking the nicotine and smoke deep into his lungs. Nandor drew closer to him, keeping behind him, waited until the man exhaled, white smoke twirling up into the clear night sky before fading, before the man could place the cigarette back between his lips Nandor was on him. He grabbed a fistful of short brown hair jerking his head back, the man lost his footing and stumbled backwards landing against his front, the vampire placed his other hand against his chest, long fingers digging into the red polo shirt that he wore. For just a second, he caught a glimpse of the realization and utter terror in the man’s eyes and he remembered his own fear, his own cut off scream in the dead of night. He pierced his fangs into the side of the man’s throat, easily piercing through his skin like butter, he growled against his neck, head jerking as he ripped at his flesh, blood gushing into his mouth. The man struggled against him, he attempted to scream, but he was choking on his own blood now, eyes rolling back into his head, and body beginning to spasm and twitch. Nandor could feel his racing heart beneath the palm of his hand, felt as his muscles tensed then suddenly relaxed, he still twitched, they always did. Blood poured from his mouth embedding itself in his beard, he lapped eagerly at the wound in the man’s neck taking in as much of his blood as he could before pulling away. 

Unceremoniously he dropped the corpse onto the pavement, it landed with a heavy thud. He stared down at the man laying there like an abandoned toy, foot twitching, eyes bulging and blood soaking into his shirt darkening it further, it pooled beneath him on the dark pavement, his cigarette snuffed out and wet with the sticky substance. 

No feeding and hunting weren’t like in the movies, it was more like a nature documentary. A large animal designed to kill hunting and devouring smaller and weaker prey. He often used to wonder if there was anything out there that was above vampires on the food chain, he used to think that there wasn’t until he found out about vampire hunters, slayers more specifically. He shifted forms and flew back home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took a couple of days to update this, also thank you to everybody that's taking the time to read this story.

He returned to Guillermo’s apartment sooner than he’d originally planned, he nearly felt bad for showing up so soon, inserting the key that had been left outside his front door into the lock and letting himself inside. Guillermo had given him a spare for this very purpose he reminded himself, and it did beat idling in the hallway like a moron while his partner’s neighbors glared at him, the elderly woman next door at one point demanding to know why he was there to begin with, it had been an incredibly awkward situation no matter how amusing Guillermo had found it when told about it. Still it felt…. invasive in a way letting himself inside, the apartment was empty and dark, a certain stillness about the place that left him with a sense of unease. It didn’t feel quite the same without Guillermo there and some ridiculous part of him worried that he wouldn’t return. He supposed it wasn’t too ridiculous considering when Guillermo had been his familiar and still living with them, he’d left two separate times, the second time never saying a goodbye to him. Despite months having passed he still found himself being bitter about it, he of course didn’t bring it up to Guillermo, it would in a way be humiliating to admit how much it had hurt.

He attempted to just sit on the couch and wait for him to return home but found himself growing restless nearly fifteen minutes later. He’d been in this apartment a dozen or so times but had never taken the time to really explore it. He’d never felt the urge to do so, it was an unfamiliar territory for him, this place, and sometimes he got the strangest feeling that Guillermo didn’t want him fully invading this area of his life. He felt the smallest flicker of guilt as he began going through the drawers of the table that sat beneath a small window in the living room, he hissed when he found several silver crosses and a bottle of holy water, he quickly shut the drawer and stalked away from the stand. Despite not touching the items inside he still felt his hands itch and burn as if he’d been doused in the horrid liquid. He barely remembered a time when he worshipped, when he studied about a God, prayed with his mother and father. If he closed his eyes and focused then he could just barely picture his mother’s face, he remembered her eyes, they had been a light shade of brown, amber really, the sun glinting off them, her skin dark and her smile bright. His father was slightly easier to picture, he knew he himself resembled him strongly, his mother often told him that. His older brother and his younger sister were nearly forgotten, his little sister he’d not spent a lot of time with, when she’d been a child he’d been sent off for training. Sometimes still he almost loathed the day he was sent away to train, to become a warrior, he hadn’t exactly wanted to do it, but he was one of the larger and stronger boys in the area. His parents had also known that if he lived through training and survived wars and battles that he could do quite well for himself, better than he would have done selling items in the local market or becoming a farmer. His father used to worry that he wasn’t social enough, the time he didn’t spend with his family he would spend with goats and chickens, preferring the company and friendship of the animals who couldn’t insult him or give him shit for things like other kids his age would do.

His memories of his human life came and went. Violence was the easiest thing for him to remember, easier than the faces of relatives and lovers and his own children. He wondered if in some way it had to do with being a vampire, if this thing, disease, or demonic energy caused one to cling onto memories tethered to violent acts. Not that he was ashamed of what he did. As far as he was concerned it was the way the world had worked back then, humans were above animals on the food chain, and humans were at their core horribly greedy. He’d been greedy, he’d been strong enough and fast enough to take the things that he desired most in the world. He’d had rooms filled with gold and treasures, silks that were far softer than anything humans created these days, he could have any man or woman that he desired then, and even if they didn’t truly love him and only pretended to do so because of his wealth and his power, he didn’t mind. It was still love or at least he could fool himself into thinking it was love, adoration was adoration even if it came from a place of fear or another person’s greed. 

In the kitchen he found nothing of real interest, a thin layer of dust settled over the white countertop and the appliances that cluttered its surface. It reminded him of more modern vampires who collected these things, items that if he wanted to actually learn the name and use of, he very well could, but quite honestly, he’d never given a shit. So, he never took the time to learn. There were plenty of vampires who went to extreme lengths to appear as if they were human, to entice and comfort victims they lured back to their homes, a full element of surprise. Those vampires reminded him of the colorful frogs he’d seen once hundreds of years ago in a forest that by now humans tore to the ground, he’d learned from a local that the frogs were poisonous, their bright colors were meant to scare off potential predators, but unfortunately had the opposite effect on humans. Apparently, children especially were constantly picking up the frogs. Nandor never saw the appeal of dressing himself and his home up as something normal and enticing, he wanted to be seen as dangerous. Of course, plenty of humans approached him on the street or in clubs, touching him and eyeing him with lust and approval, perhaps he was more like a panther. Taking them back to a home without a kitchen, to a bedroom with walls lined with swords and knives and a coffin in the center of it all, he’d rip into ripe flesh with sharp fangs. He was comfortable with his way of life, the way of life him and at least two of his roommates chose. 

It did make him wonder why now that Guillermo was out on his own he still had an unused kitchen, even the fridge that sat against the wall in the corner was mostly empty besides a bottle of vodka on the door, and something in a plastic container that he didn’t have any interest in investigating. He admittedly never paid much attention to the eating habits of his former familiar, it wasn’t really his problem if there was food in the house, or if he had the money to buy food for himself. In retrospect maybe that was selfish.

He left the kitchen and made his way down the short hall and into Guillermo’s bedroom, a room he was far more accustomed to being inside. Per usual it was a wreck; blood stained dress shirts and sweaters lay in a pile on the floor at the foot of the unmade bed, on a small desk next to the closet lay books about vampires, monsters, and legends of vampire hunters throughout history. He rolled his eyes as he picked up one of the books and began leafing through its pages, 857 pages of bull shit as far as he were concerned, he could have told Guillermo anything he wanted to know about most species of vampires as well as most other monsters. Hunters on the other hand, slayers were totally different things. He’d had very little experience with monster and vampire hunters, when he’d been turned it was rather popular for humans to gather in groups, drag werewolves and vampires from their dwellings and brutally murder them in the middle of the town. He’d seen it happen plenty of times throughout history, it was one of the few times he and many others of his kind felt weak and helpless. There wasn’t exactly much one could do with silver chains wrapped tightly around your throat and rosary binding your wrists behind your back while some bastard of a priest forced holy water down your throat. Hunters seemed to fade away with time though, or so he’d thought. Humans had the strangest habit of repressing things; none of them were quite sure when it had started, but suddenly humans were making movies and TV shows about vampires and other monsters, treating them as if they were nothing but imaginary creatures dreamt up by a child. On one hand it was slightly insulting, on the other hand it was a relief. By the 1970s hunters began to disappear, by the 2000s they seemed nonexistent until he found out about Guillermo and through him found out about a failed group of twenty something year olds who wanted to be vampire hunters.

He should hate him, he thought as he sat the book back down and picked up a small black box, upon opening it he found more crosses, small ones, mostly silver, but a few carved from wood. He snapped the box shut and dropped it onto the desk, he turned away and went to the dresser on the other side of the room. As he rummaged through clothes, the occasional bottle of lube, handcuffs that he would certainly be asking him about later, he did find a drawer full of wooden stakes and of course more crosses and holy water. If he didn’t hate him then he should be afraid of him. Still he couldn’t force the emotion upon himself, there were times when for a moment he did fear him, like when the jagged ends of the broken broomstick had been pressed to his chest, but Guillermo would never purposefully hurt him. Perhaps that thought was naïve, the sort of thought that would get him killed. His instructor from his days as a human would have hit him for such a stupid thought, trusting somebody so completely like this despite every sign pointing to the fact his lover could kill him. 

That was the thing about them these days though; they could kill each other easily, they nearly matched in physical strength, Guillermo surrounded by weapons and tools to restrain and to kill. Nandor liked to believe that he could snap his neck or rip out his jugular before the human could even get a hold of a stake or a crucifix, but that doubt lingered in his mind. He didn’t know if the doubt was because he’d seen what Guillermo could do or because he doubted himself able to ever lay a hand on him in that way. He exited the bedroom and returned to the living room, just as he reentered the room the front door opened, and Guillermo stumbled inside. 

To say he looked like Hell would be something of an understatement; his glasses were blood stained, the left lens was cracked, his hair fell over his forehead, a large bruise on his right cheek, blood drenched the tan jacket he wore as well as the dark green sweater he wore, his bloodied hands shook and from where he stood Nandor could smell that not all of the blood belonged to whoever he’d killed. Before the human could register his presence he was on him, taking hold of his shaking hands and pulling them up to his face to examine the busted and bloodied skin of his knuckles, Guillermo startled and backed away from him, eyes wide with confused fear until he recognized him.

“Shit you scared me, when did you get here?” He asked as he removed his glasses, he held them up to the light squinting up at them as if they could be salvaged. Nandor watched as he attempted to clean the blood off with his sweater which only resulted in smearing more blood onto the glass, with a frustrated sigh he tossed them onto the couch to be dealt with later.

“I’ve been here for a while. What happened to you?”

Guillermo looked down at himself as if he too were just discovering he was covered in blood. He sighed and ran his fingers back through his messed hair, wincing at the feeling of caked and drying blood. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” He said as he shrugged out of his jacket letting it drop to the floor.

Nandor moved closer to him again, he rested a hand against his cheek lightly stroking his fingers against bloodied and bruised skin. Guillermo’s eyes fluttered shut, he sighed as he leaned into the vampire’s cold touch, his skin felt hot. 

“Tell me,” he urged, voice quiet.

Guillermo didn’t respond for a moment, he nuzzled against the palm of his hand. “I will, just can I take a shower first?”

Nandor sighed, he pressed a kiss against his forehead before stepping away from him allowing the human his space. Guillermo offered a small smile as he slipped past him and headed down the hall towards the bathroom leaving the door open behind him. Nandor wondered if that meant he was allowed to enter, given that he didn’t inquire further about where he’d been tonight and why he looked like he’d been in a Hell of a fight. He remained in the living room until he heard the shower water turn on, then he headed into the bathroom. Guillermo’s soiled clothes lay in a ball between the toilet and the sink, more clothes that surely would just end up burnt or tossed in the dumpster behind the nearest restaurant. Through the frosted shower door, he could just barely make out the shape of his partner. He rid himself of his own clothing as quickly as he could, which was truthfully not quickly at all. By the time that he slid the door open and stepped into the shower with him Guillermo had gotten most the blood washed off his skin, Nandor watched as it mixed with the water turning it a pale pink, staining the white shower floor. Guillermo was in the middle of washing his hair only stopping when Nandor gently brushed his hands out of the way and took over the chore of massaging shampoo into his scalp, running it through the dark curls of his hair, untangling it, and washing the crusted blood and bits of bone from it. Guillermo sighed, eyes closing, the bruise on his cheek along with the ones littered across his torso and legs shown more visibly under the heat of the shower water. Nandor bit back the urge to ask about it, instead he leaned down pressing a gentle kiss against a bruise on the center of his chest, Guillermo pet his fingers through the vampire’s wet hair. 

“I didn’t expect to see you tonight.”

“I know, I just needed to see you.” He admitted, voice quiet as he pressed a kiss against his shoulder, he placed his hands on his hips pulling him closer.

Guillermo leaned his head back under the spray of water, he ran his fingers through his hair rinsing out the shampoo. Nandor kissed up along his exposed throat, he paused when he noticed two red marks on his neck. Guillermo tensed as he reached up lightly brushing his fingertips against the familiar marks.

“Did somebody bite you?” He asked doing his best to keep his tone even.

He wasn’t sure if he was jealous or scared, he wasn’t sure what he was. The marks were small, barely anything, whoever had attempted to sink their fangs into his neck hadn’t exactly succeeded, probably staked before even a drop of slayer blood could touch their greedy tongue.

Guillermo took hold of his wrist moving his hand away from his neck. “No, sort of, they tried to.” 

“We do need to talk,”

He nodded in agreement; eyes focused on the floor. “I know, we will, tonight. Shit what time is it?” He asked looking back up at him.

Nandor shrugged, he stroked his fingers against his cheek as he backed him up against the shower wall, body pressed against his. “Late, nearly four in the morning.”

“How are you planning on getting back home?”

“I was hoping perhaps I could stay the day with you.” He suggested, he felt unsure now that he was saying it. Perhaps he’d had his fill of vampires for the night, for a lifetime.

Guillermo reached up brushing locks of wet black hair back behind his ear, he leaned up kissing him gently, a faint loving brush of lips against his. “I’d like that actually, I’m not sure that I want to be alone right now.” He admitted, voice a soft warm whisper against his lips.

He found himself touching the marks on his neck again, this time Guillermo didn’t remove his hand. There was a lot they needed to discuss.


	4. Chapter 4

Death was a natural part of life, well perhaps not for him. At one time it had been, he’d been surrounded by death in battle, had seen many die as a child growing up, but then that horrid thing had grabbed him and dragged him into the shadows ripping the chance to die a warrior’s death away from him. Over time death became less of a fear, less of a reward at the end of a lifetime of battles won, a paradise awaiting on the other side. Now though as he paced back and forth in Guillermo’s bedroom, his partner sitting on the foot of his bed, hair tousled and damp, wearing a t-shirt and boxers he couldn’t help but think only of death. Of the strong possibility that tonight Guillermo could have died, he could have never walked through that door bloodied and bruised with the sign of a brush with a brutal death on the side of his neck. Guillermo watched him patiently, a slight look of exhaustion in his eyes as he waited for wherever their yet to be had conversation was headed. Nandor himself wasn’t exactly sure where this was headed; he was caught between what he considered justified anger at Guillermo, at his genetics, and whatever vampire had the gull to bite him and feeling the strong urge to wrap his arms around him and never let him go again. If they still shared a home this would all be simpler.

He ceased in his pacing and turned to face him; Guillermo stared up at him expectantly. “You realize that you could have died tonight.” He said as if this weren’t obvious to him.

“I know, but I didn’t, I was careful.” He responded in a tone as if he were trying to placate a whining child.

“Careful doesn’t end up with a vampire biting you.” 

“I didn’t see him, he came up behind me, but I staked him before he could do any serious damage. Look I know that you’re upset-“

“Of course, I am upset, you could have died, what would have happened then? You told me the Council wasn’t after you, that you hadn’t seen any of their assassins in weeks.”

Guillermo glanced away rubbing nervously at the back of his neck. “It wasn’t the Council.” He paused staring down at the floor. “It was, they were friends of the vampires I killed at the theatre.”

He still didn’t bother to meet his eyes, fidgeting nervously with his fingers.

“Great so now vampires want revenge on you, do they know who you are?”

“Yeah, they do, the word travelled fast about a Van Helsing. It’s okay though, I mean it’s not, but it hasn’t been an overwhelming amount, and none of them know where I live or anything.” 

“Why the Hell didn’t you tell me any of this, don’t you think I should have known about this?”

“I don’t work for you anymore; I don’t have to tell you everything that goes on with me.” He responded finally meeting his gaze, a challenge in his eyes.

Nandor scoffed looking away from him, “maybe if you still did then this wouldn’t be happening.” He muttered.

“Are you fucking serious, the last year I spent working for you I spent most of my time keeping you guys from getting murdered, I never got a thanks for that by the way. I didn’t get anything except Nadja and Lazslo are fucking scared of me, and you keep mothering over me like I’m a kid.” 

“Why did you never tell me about the assassins, you never tell me anything, it’s as if you don’t trust me.” 

“So, I was just supposed to tell my vampire boss that I was killing vampires all summer, that would have gone over great, what would you have done?”

Even when he was frustrated with him, he still admired the fire in his eyes, how much he’d changed since he met him over eleven years ago. He stepped closer to him reaching out a stroking his fingers against his cheek, he didn’t want to fight with him.

“I would have fought with you, I always would, I care so much about you. You know that don’t you?”

“Lately? Yeah I kind of got the idea that you do, but before the theatre I just….I don’t know.” He shrugged looking down again. “I always hoped you cared about me, but most of the time I felt that you never did, if I died you’d just replace me, if I left you wouldn’t notice.” There was a sadness in his voice that hurt to hear.

It hurt to know that he spent years thinking he wasn’t cared about by a man he confessed to having loved for a good portion of eleven years. Nandor lowered himself to his knees kneeling before him, he held his face in his hands doing his best to meet his eyes. 

“I’ve cared for longer than I care to admit. You need to understand it is very dangerous for us to love humans, I haven’t loved anybody since my death.”

Love had felt easier when his heart still beat, he’d loved so many people back when he’d been alive.

“Turn me then, you wouldn’t have to worry about me dying, aging, any of that.” 

“You still want that?”

“I do, I think I do. Shit, I-I spent ten years being so positive I wanted that, but….I don’t know, I mean I do, but…I want you and I want to be with you, this used to be so much simpler.” 

He smiled softly in response, “I agree, you’ve changed so much since I met you. I am sorry for so many things, I just want you safe, I want to keep you safe.”

Guillermo leaned forward kissing him gently, “I love you, even if you’re stubborn, and your favorite book is Twilight.”

“It’s a good book, I don’t understand your problem with it.” Nandor complained.

Guillermo kissed him again longer this time, he placed a hand against the back of his neck pulling him closer, up until he was straddling his lap, hands resting on his human’s shoulders, fingers digging into the soft material of the shirt he wore. Guillermo bit and sucked against his bottom lip, he slid his hand up tangling his fingers in wet curling black hair tugging gently drawing a soft moan from the man on top of him.

“I’m glad that you’re here and I am sorry about keeping everything from you, I’ll be more open with you from now on, promise.” 

“Thank you, that’s all I ask, and please no more getting bitten by other vampires.” He brushed his fingers against the marks on his neck.

“I’ll only ever let you bite me, nobody else.” 

“Good,” he kissed him again placing a hand against his chest gently pushing him back against the bed.

It wasn’t that he was against the idea of biting him, in fact it was nearly distracting hearing his blood pumping through his veins, the beating of his heart, the melodic thrumming of his pulse, he could nearly feel it within his very bones laying atop him, hands pushing up under his shirt to touch along the swell of his stomach, fingers stroking against scars marring his chest from a long ago surgery. When he allowed himself to kiss along his neck, tongue trailing along the marks on his neck he was tempted to sink his own fangs into the skin there, to reclaim him as his own, nobody else’s, but he feared once he started he wouldn’t have the self-control to stop. He’d in the past not had many problems with controlling himself when it came to turning humans, on the painfully rare occasion that he did do so, but he supposed it was the slayer blood pumping through his veins that kickstarted some animalistic part of his brain telling him to kill and devour. He wasn’t sure if it was a comfort or not that Guillermo wanted him to bite him, that he wanted him to lose that careful control over himself and just let go.

He pulled back looking down at him, hair falling down over his face, Guillermo laughed reaching up to brush his hair back behind his ear. 

“I love you,” he whispered staring down at him and he meant it as much as it scared him. 

It wasn’t even that he loved somebody mortal, somebody who inevitably would die one day if he didn’t turn him, it was loving a slayer, loving somebody who by nature was meant to have killed him, could still kill him, Satan knew there were plenty of weapons in this room alone, and he’d learned Guillermo had the physical capability to overpower him, a fact that quite honestly aroused him more than scared him.

“I love you too,” he leaned up kissing him, a gentle brushing of lips against his, he shuddered at the warmth of him. It was a terrible thing to imagine him cold someday, his heart no longer beating. 

“We should rest, you’ve had a long night.” Nandor gently suggested, he took hold of his hand raising it to his lips pressing a kiss against his scarred knuckles. He moved off him allowing him to move.

Guillermo looked at him as if he wanted to say something, perhaps to ask if he was alright, but then decided against it. Perhaps he knew he would lie or avoid telling him the truth. He couldn’t say that he was exactly okay, but there was a warm comfort in being able to curl up in bed with him, to hold him in his arms and know that nothing would be able to hurt him, to take him from him. He did his best to not think about that, about how he nearly lost him, how this was just their lives now.

It was a strange thought as they lay in bed together, Guillermo curled up against him, face buried against his chest, one arm draped over his waist. He’d always thought his human was so weak, so helpless, and yet he wasn’t. He’d been at one time before he found his confidence, settled more so into what destiny set out for him to be, and that was a terrifying thought as well. What if one day he decided he no longer wanted to be a vampire, but wanted to slay them, fully take on the title of a Van Helsing, but he couldn’t quite imagine that. No, he couldn’t picture his Guillermo falling out of love with him, being disgusted by what he was, for now and maybe for always he was his and his alone.


End file.
